Conventional anti-collision lights (ACLs) for aircraft employ xenon flash tube lamps that provide a high intensity, short duration burst of light. A power supply charges one or more capacitors. The charged capacitors provide a relatively high supply voltage to operate the xenon flash tube lamps.
However, capacitor life is limited, and accordingly, they require periodic replacement. Further, life of a xenon flash tube lamp is relatively limited, and accordingly, they also require periodic replacement. Since the life expectancies of the capacitors and the xenon flash tube lamps are different, several rounds of periodic maintenance may be required to ensure reliable operational life expectancies for all components of the ACL. Thus, maintenance costs may be relatively high for a conventional xenon flash tube ACL.
Light emitting diode (LED) technology has developed to a level where a plurality of LEDs, residing in a suitable housing, may be used to replace an ACL employing conventional xenon flash tube technology. However, relatively large arrays of LED lamps are required to generate the required high intensity, short duration burst of light that must be emitted from an ACL.
Further, the direction of emitted light from a LED fixture must be controllable to a predefined range, such as an arc of 110° oriented about a particular predefined directional axis. Such LED fixtures employ a plurality of LED lamps that emit light in a predefined output direction. In such LED fixtures, the LED lamp light output is parallel to the light output direction of the LED fixture. Further, each LED lamp required its own optics, such as an individual reflector, lens, or the like.
In view of the LED lamp configurations where the LED lamp light orientation is parallel to the light output direction of the LED fixture, the LED fixture enclosure dimensions are not compatible with legacy xenon flash tube lamp fixtures. Accordingly, such LED fixtures can not be easily adapted to replace a xenon flash tube lamp enclosure on an existing installation aircraft.